I just read Forbes’ April/May issue “A New Billionaire Everyday” and it had a blurb on Sam Bankman-Fried (I haven’t been able to find the blurb online, this is just Sam’s bio). Unfortunately, the blurb contained some of the classic mischaracterizations of EA—that it’s all about giving money, that all that matters is cost-effectiveness calculations and quantifiable effects, etc. Granted, I might have been overly sensitive to these kinds of misrepresentations, especially since I read it quickly.
This got me thinking: does EA (maybe the CEA specifically) have any kind of process for reviewing media messaging and trying to prevent these kinds of misrepresentations? I have no clue to what degree EA would be able to shape some of these descriptions, but I’d guess that Sam was contacted by Forbes for the article and was asked some questions. I’d imagine that this back-and-forth could have at least some effect on how EA is portrayed by Forbes (or whatever publication is covering it). So, I’m wondering if some kind of PR group within EA could be a useful resource when members of EA are contacted by the media (or whether this already exists).
I just read Forbes’ April/May issue “A New Billionaire Everyday” and it had a blurb on Sam Bankman-Fried (I haven’t been able to find the blurb online, this is just Sam’s bio). Unfortunately, the blurb contained some of the classic mischaracterizations of EA—that it’s all about giving money, that all that matters is cost-effectiveness calculations and quantifiable effects, etc. Granted, I might have been overly sensitive to these kinds of misrepresentations, especially since I read it quickly.
This got me thinking: does EA (maybe the CEA specifically) have any kind of process for reviewing media messaging and trying to prevent these kinds of misrepresentations? I have no clue to what degree EA would be able to shape some of these descriptions, but I’d guess that Sam was contacted by Forbes for the article and was asked some questions. I’d imagine that this back-and-forth could have at least some effect on how EA is portrayed by Forbes (or whatever publication is covering it). So, I’m wondering if some kind of PR group within EA could be a useful resource when members of EA are contacted by the media (or whether this already exists).
CEA has people working on this. See, e.g. this article.